A SECRET world has been discovered deep below ice in Antarctica.
The hidden ecosystem was found 1,600 feet below the surface.
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A team of scientists discovered a dark cavern filled with shrimp-like creatures during a recent experiment.
They found the never-before-seen habitat deep below the Larsen Ice Shelf.
That’s a huge floating ice sheet, which clings to the eastern coast of the Antarctic peninsula.
The team was drilling there with a powerful hot water hose.
A camera was then sent down the newly formed hole to see what was beneath.
The researchers were surprised when they spotted a swarm of tiny specks on their video feed.
At first, they thought their camera was broken.
Then, they found out they were looking at tiny crustaceans.
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This was a surprise as the scientists weren’t expecting anything like this to be living in the deep icy water.
Craig Stevens, a physical oceanographer at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) in Auckland, said: “In a normal experiment, seeing one of these things would have you leaping up and down for joy.
“We were inundated. Having all those animals swimming around our camera means there’s clearly an important ecosystem process happening there, which we will do more research on by analysing water samples to test for things like nutrients.”
The researchers think there could be a vast network of lakes and rivers beneath Antarctica.
Research continues to try and find out more about this hidden world.
